CN110927809A - Special nuclear material detection device - Google Patents

Special nuclear material detection device Download PDF

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Publication number
CN110927809A
CN110927809A CN201911390361.0A CN201911390361A CN110927809A CN 110927809 A CN110927809 A CN 110927809A CN 201911390361 A CN201911390361 A CN 201911390361A CN 110927809 A CN110927809 A CN 110927809A
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China
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particle beam
nuclear material
special nuclear
material detection
particle
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CN201911390361.0A
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Chinese (zh)
Inventor
郑玉来
王强
王国宝
李永
刘超
郭凤美
田利军
田星皓
颜静儒
郭靓
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China Institute of Atomic of Energy
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China Institute of Atomic of Energy
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Priority to CN201911390361.0A priority Critical patent/CN110927809A/en
Publication of CN110927809A publication Critical patent/CN110927809A/en
Pending legal-status Critical Current

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    • G01V5/223

Abstract

The invention provides a special nuclear material detection device, which comprises: an electron beam source for emitting an electron beam; a heavy metal target disposed downstream of the electron beam source in a transport direction of the electron beam emitted by the electron beam source, for receiving the electron beam from the electron beam source and generating a first particle beam; a photoneutron conversion target disposed adjacent to the heavy metal target for receiving the first particle beam from the heavy metal target and producing a second particle beam; the particle detection unit is used for detecting a first particle beam and a third particle beam generated after a special nuclear material is irradiated by a second particle beam emitted by the photoneutron conversion target; the optical neutron conversion target is provided with a first particle beam quasi-straight channel, and the first particle beam can penetrate through the first particle beam quasi-straight channel to be emitted. The invention simplifies the structure of the detection device and reduces the manufacturing cost.

Description

Special nuclear material detection device
Technical Field
The present invention relates to inspection equipment and more particularly to a device for inspecting special nuclear materials in containers or vans.
Background
Currently, terrorists often use Special Nuclear Materials (SNM) to manufacture simple nuclear devices (IND) for terrorist attacks, which poses a serious threat to the life and property safety of people in all countries of the world. The special nuclear material is the core material of the simple nuclear device manufactured by terrorist, and the effective way for blocking the simple nuclear device manufactured by terrorist organizations is to strengthen the monitoring and detection of the special nuclear material in order to prevent the occurrence of the nuclear terrorist events from the source.
How to effectively detect the special nuclear materials hidden in the container or van is a problem which needs to be solved by the key point of the nuclear security detection technology. Aiming at large vehicles or containers, the shielding layer is relatively thick, and the problem of great attenuation of the detected rays exists. At present, the X-ray transmission detection imaging technology based on a high-energy accelerator is mostly adopted to detect contraband in a large vehicle or a container. High-energy X-ray transmission detection methods can effectively provide mass thickness information of the inspected object, however, such methods provide very limited information about its material composition.
Currently, techniques capable of effectively detecting a specific nuclear material include both passive detection techniques and active detection techniques. Passive detection techniques determine the presence of nuclear material by directly detecting neutrons and/or gamma rays emitted by the particular nuclear material itself. Although this technique can detect relatively easily plutonium (Pu), a nuclear material that emits many neutrons and gamma rays, U-235 emits few gamma rays and is weak in energy and easily shielded by the vehicle cabin, making direct detection of such nuclear material very difficult. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a detection device that can accurately discriminate a special nuclear material concealed within a container or van to prevent illegal transportation and illegal use of the special nuclear material.
Disclosure of Invention
In order to solve at least one of the above technical problems, an embodiment of the present invention provides a special nuclear material detection apparatus, which belongs to a special nuclear material active detection technology, and mainly uses an external radiation source to excite a special nuclear material, and detects neutrons and gamma rays emitted by fission of the excited special nuclear material to determine whether the special nuclear material exists in a detected object.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a special nuclear material detection apparatus including: an electron beam source for emitting an electron beam; a heavy metal target disposed downstream of the electron beam source in a direction of propagation of the electron beam emitted by the electron beam source, for receiving the electron beam from the electron beam source and generating a first particle beam; a photoneutron conversion target, disposed adjacent to the heavy metal target, for receiving the first particle beam from the heavy metal target and producing a second particle beam; and the particle detection unit is used for detecting the first particle beam and a third particle beam generated after the special nuclear material is irradiated by the second particle beam emitted by the photoneutron conversion target. The optical neutron conversion target is provided with a first particle beam quasi-straight channel, and the first particle beam can penetrate through the first particle beam quasi-straight channel to be emitted.
According to the special nuclear material detection device, the first particle beam quasi-straight channel is arranged in the photoneutron conversion target to collimate the first particle beam and then emit the first particle beam, so that the step of collimating the first particle beam by using an independent collimator is avoided, the structure of detection equipment is simplified, and the cost of the detection equipment is reduced.
In a preferred embodiment of the special nuclear material detection apparatus according to the invention, the first particle beam collimating channel has a gradually increasing cross-section in the direction of transport of the first particle beam.
According to another preferred embodiment of the special nuclear material detection apparatus according to the present invention, the special nuclear material detection apparatus further includes a first particle beam shielding member movable between a first position where the first particle beam quasi-straight passage is blocked and a second position where the first particle beam quasi-straight passage is not blocked.
In a further preferred embodiment of the special nuclear material detection apparatus according to the invention, the first particle beam shielding member is arranged on the side of the photoneutron conversion target facing away from the heavy metal target.
In still another preferred embodiment of the special nuclear material detection apparatus according to the present invention, the special nuclear material detection apparatus further includes a second particle beam shielding member movable between a third position shielding the second particle beam and a fourth position not shielding the second particle beam.
According to still another preferred embodiment of the special nuclear material detection apparatus according to the present invention, when the second particle beam shielding member is located at the third position, the second particle beam shielding member is disposed so as to be wrapped around the outside of the photoneutron conversion target and exposes the first particle beam quasi-straight channel.
According to a further preferred embodiment of the special nuclear material detection apparatus according to the invention, the particle detection unit comprises an X-ray detector and an n-gamma detector.
In a further preferred embodiment of the special nuclear material detection apparatus according to the invention, the X-ray detector comprises an L-type CsI crystal detector; and/or the n-gamma detector comprises a plastic scintillator detector.
According to a further preferred embodiment of the special nuclear material detection apparatus according to the invention, the electron beam source comprises a dual-energy electron accelerator.
In another preferred embodiment of the special nuclear material detection device according to the present invention, the energy of the electron beam generated by the dual-energy electron accelerator is 6MeV and 9MeV, respectively.
According to a further preferred embodiment of the special nuclear material detection apparatus according to the present invention, the heavy metal target comprises a tungsten target, and/or the photoneutron conversion target comprises a heavy water target or a beryllium target.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has at least one of the following beneficial effects:
(1) according to the special nuclear material detection device, the X rays can be emitted through the first particle beam quasi-straight channel formed in the photoneutron conversion target, so that the object to be detected can be preliminarily detected through the X rays, suspicious special nuclear materials in the object can be positioned, and the suspicious special nuclear materials can be accurately detected by utilizing neutron beams, and obviously, the detection efficiency of the suspicious special nuclear materials is greatly improved by the detection mode;
(2) the arrangement of the first particle beam quasi-straight channel in the photoneutron conversion target can greatly simplify the structure of the special nuclear material detection device, and a special collimating structure is not required, so that the manufacturing cost of the special nuclear material detection device is greatly reduced;
(3) the first particle beam quasi-straight channel can be blocked by arranging the first particle beam shielding component, so that the emission of X rays is prevented, the interference of the X rays on neutron detection can be greatly reduced, and the accuracy of the neutron detection of the suspicious special nuclear materials is improved;
(4) the second particle beam shielding component can be arranged to detect the object to be detected only through the first particle beam, so that preliminary identification and positioning of suspicious special nuclear materials are realized through the first particle beam.
Drawings
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention which refers to the accompanying drawings, and may assist in a comprehensive understanding of the invention.
Fig. 1 is a schematic structural view of a special nuclear material detection apparatus according to the present invention.
It is noted that the drawings are not necessarily to scale and are merely illustrative in nature and not intended to obscure the reader.
Detailed Description
In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the technical solutions of the present invention will be described clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present invention. It should be apparent that the described embodiment is one embodiment of the invention, and not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the described embodiments of the invention without any inventive step, are within the scope of protection of the invention.
Unless defined otherwise, technical or scientific terms used herein shall have the ordinary meaning as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs.
The invention provides a special nuclear material detection device 10, which comprises an electron beam source 12, a heavy metal target 14, a photoneutron conversion target 16 and a particle detection unit 18 in sequence along the transmission direction of a particle beam, wherein the electron beam source 12 is used for emitting an electron beam, the heavy metal target 14 is arranged at the downstream of the electron beam source 12 along the transmission direction of the electron beam emitted by the electron beam source 12 and is used for receiving the electron beam from the electron beam source 12 and generating a first particle beam, the first particle beam is an X ray, the heavy metal target 14 is preferably a tungsten target, namely, the electron beam from the electron beam source 12 impacts the tungsten target as the heavy metal target 14 to generate the X ray beam. Further, a photoneutron conversion target 16 is disposed adjacent to the heavy metal target 14 for receiving the first particle beam from the heavy metal target 14 and generating a second particle beam, wherein the photoneutron conversion target 16 can convert the X-ray beam as the first particle beam into a neutron beam as the second particle beam, so as to emit the neutron beam for the detection of the relevant material. Here, the photoneutron conversion target 16 generally employs a heavy water target or a beryllium target, that is, a neutron beam is generated by impinging X-rays on the heavy water target or the beryllium target as the photoneutron conversion target 16.
Further, the particle detection unit 18 of the special nuclear material detection apparatus 10 is configured to detect a first particle beam and a third particle beam generated after the special nuclear material is irradiated with the second particle beam emitted from the photoneutron conversion target 16. For example, the special nuclear material can be preliminarily identified and located by detecting the X-ray beam as the first particle beam, and the suspicious special nuclear material can be accurately screened by the neutron beam as the second particle beam.
Here, a first particle beam collimation channel 162 may be disposed in the photoneutron conversion target 16, the first particle beam collimation channel 162 may be a cylinder, such as a cylinder, or a cone, such as a cone, and preferably, the first particle beam collimation channel 162 has a gradually increasing cross section along the transmission direction of the first particle beam, so that the first particle beam emitted from the first particle beam collimation channel 162 may have a diffuse shape, such as a fan-shaped cross section in the transmission direction of the first particle beam, thereby forming a diffuse scanning beam so as to cover the target detection region, the first particle beam collimation channel 162 may also be disposed to have an included angle α with the central transmission direction of the second particle beam, as shown in fig. 1, so that the first particle beam is emitted toward a desired direction, thereby performing a preliminary detection on an object to be detected by an X-ray as the first particle beam, performing a preliminary positioning on a suspicious special nuclear material, and then accurately discriminating the suspicious special nuclear material by a neutron beam.
In order to prevent the X-rays emitted from the special nuclear material detection apparatus 10 according to the present invention from interfering with the detection of the special nuclear material using the neutron beam, the special nuclear material detection apparatus 10 further includes a first particle beam shielding member 164, and the first particle beam shielding member 164 is movable between a first position at which the first particle beam quasi-straight passage 162 is shielded and a second position at which the first particle beam quasi-straight passage 162 is not shielded. The first particle beam shielding component 164 may be disposed on a side of the photoneutron conversion target 16 away from the heavy metal target 14, so that, after the special nuclear material detection apparatus 10 according to the present invention scans the object to be detected with the X-rays emitted from the first particle beam collimating channel 162 and preliminarily locates the suspicious special nuclear material, and when the suspicious special nuclear material is detected with the neutron beam, the first particle beam collimating channel 162 may be shielded by the first particle beam shielding component 164, so that the X-rays are not emitted, and thus no interference is generated when the detection with the neutron beam is performed.
Further, the special nuclear material detection apparatus 10 according to the present invention is also provided with a second particle beam shielding member 166, and the second particle beam shielding member 166 is movable between a third position where the second particle beam is shielded and a fourth position where the second particle beam is not shielded. That is, the second particle beam shielding member 166 can shield and shield the particle beam flow, thereby enabling the detection of the object to be detected only by the X-rays from the first particle beam quasi-straight passage 162. When the second particle beam shielding member 166 is located at the third position, the second particle beam shielding member 166 is disposed so as to be wrapped around the outside of the photoneutron conversion target 16 and exposes the first particle beam collimating channel 162, whereby X-rays as the first particle beam can be emitted while shielding the neutron beam. The second particle beam shielding member 166 may slow and absorb the neutron beam from the photoneutron conversion target 16 to shield the neutron beam.
Correspondingly, when the first particle beam and the second particle beam are used for detecting the object to be detected, a corresponding detector needs to be arranged to detect the particle beam passing through the object to be detected so as to perform image or component analysis on the object to be detected. Here, the particle detection unit 18 of the special nuclear material detection apparatus 10 according to the present invention includes an X-ray detector 182 and an n- γ detector 184, wherein the X-ray detector 182 is used to detect and analyze the radiation passing through the object 42 to be detected, and the X-ray detector 182 can image the object 42 to be detected and analyze the image to determine whether there is suspicious special nuclear material. Here, the electron beam source 12 may be a dual-energy electron accelerator, the energy of the electron beam generated by the dual-energy electron accelerator is 6MeV and 9MeV, the heavy metal target 14 is targeted by the dual-energy electron beam, and a dual-view X-ray beam is generated by the collimation effect of the first particle beam collimation channel 162 in the neutron conversion target 16, and then the object to be detected may be detected and imaged by using a dual-view L-type X-ray detector, and the substance classification may be performed by using the equivalent atomic number, and the position of the suspicious special nuclear material may be located at the same time. Advantageously, the X-ray detector may comprise an L-type CsI crystal detector.
After the suspicious special nuclear material is preliminarily positioned, neutron beams can be used for carrying out neutron detection on the suspicious special nuclear material, the neutron beams are emitted to the suspicious special nuclear material to induce the fission reaction of the suspicious special nuclear material and emit neutrons and gamma rays, the material characteristics of the suspicious special nuclear material are identified by detecting the neutrons and the gamma rays, and accurate judgment is made accordingly. Here, the special nuclear material detection apparatus 10 according to the present invention detects neutrons and gamma rays emitted from the object to be detected 42 after being irradiated by the neutron beam by the n-gamma detector 184, and measures and analyzes characteristics of rays emitted from fission of special nuclear materials induced by the neutrons by the differential attenuation technique and the slow-emission gamma ray detection technique, so as to determine whether special nuclear materials exist in the object to be detected 42. Here, the n-gamma detector 184 may include a plastic scintillator detector.
When the special nuclear material detection device 10 according to the present invention is used to detect the object 42 to be detected stored in the container or van 40, the special nuclear material detection device 10 may be disposed on a detection channel of the container or van 40, wherein the electron beam source 12, the heavy metal target 14 and the photoneutron conversion target 16 are disposed on one side of the detection channel, and the particle detection unit 18 is disposed on the other side of the detection channel, so that the container or van 40 can pass between the photoneutron conversion target 16 and the particle detection unit 18 when passing through the detection channel. And controlling the electron beam source 12 to be started and emitting a dual-energy electron beam, wherein the dual-energy electron beam bombards the heavy metal target 14 to generate X rays. The X-rays may directly irradiate the photoneutron conversion target 16, a portion of the X-rays may directly enter the first particle beam collimation channel 162 and directly exit therefrom, and another portion of the X-rays may directly irradiate the photoneutron conversion target 16, thereby generating a neutron beam.
The special nuclear material detection apparatus 10 according to the present invention may have two operation modes, and in the first operation mode, the first particle beam shielding member 164 may be in the second position, while the second particle beam shielding member 166 is in the fourth position, i.e., neither of them shields or shields the corresponding particle flow, that is, both of the X-ray and the neutron beam are emitted from the photoneutron conversion target 16. At this time, when the container or van 40 passes through the detection channel in the direction of the arrow a, the container or van 40 can be simultaneously scanned, imaged and component-detected by the X-ray and the neutron beam, so that the object 42 to be detected therein can be preliminarily positioned, imaged and analyzed and component-analyzed by the X-ray detector 182 and the n- γ detector 184, and thereby positioning and screening of the special nuclear material can be realized.
In the second operation mode, the first particle beam shielding component 164 may be first located at the second position, and the second particle beam shielding component 166 is located at the third position, that is, the special nuclear material detection apparatus 10 according to the present invention only emits X-rays outwards at this time, images the object 42 to be detected in the container or van 40 by using the X-rays, primarily determines and locates suspicious special nuclear materials in the object 42 to be detected, and when the suspicious special nuclear materials are found, the first particle beam shielding component 164 is moved to the first position, so that the first particle beam shielding component 164 blocks the first particle beam flow channel 162, thereby shielding the X-rays to prevent the X-rays from interfering with subsequent detection. Meanwhile, the second particle beam shielding component 166 is moved to the fourth position, so that the second particle beam shielding component 166 does not shield the neutron beam, and at this time, the object to be detected 42 is detected by the neutron beam, and the n- γ detector 184 analyzes the irradiated neutrons and γ rays, and discriminates whether suspicious special nuclear materials exist in the object to be detected 42.
According to the special nuclear material detection device 10 provided by the invention, the first particle beam collimation channel 162 formed in the photoneutron conversion target 16 can emit X rays, so that the object to be detected 42 can be preliminarily detected through the X rays, suspicious special nuclear materials in the object to be detected can be positioned, and the suspicious special nuclear materials can be accurately detected by using subsequent neutron beams. In addition, the first particle beam collimation channel 162 can be blocked by arranging the first particle beam shielding component 164, so that the emission of X rays is prevented, the interference of the X rays on neutron detection can be greatly reduced, and the accuracy of the neutron detection of the suspicious special nuclear materials is improved.
It should also be noted that, in the case of the embodiments of the present invention, features of the embodiments and examples may be combined with each other to obtain a new embodiment without conflict.
The above description is only an embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and the scope of the present invention is subject to the scope of the claims.

Claims (11)

1. A special nuclear material detection apparatus, characterized in that the special nuclear material detection apparatus (10) comprises:
an electron beam source (12), the electron beam source (12) for emitting an electron beam;
a heavy metal target (14), the heavy metal target (14) being arranged downstream of the electron beam source (12) in a transport direction of the electron beam emitted by the electron beam source (12), for receiving an electron beam current from the electron beam source (12) and generating a first particle beam current;
a photoneutron conversion target (16), the photoneutron conversion target (16) being disposed adjacent to the heavy metal target (14) for receiving a first particle beam from the heavy metal target (14) and producing a second particle beam; and
a particle detection unit (18), wherein the particle detection unit (18) is used for detecting the first particle beam and a third particle beam generated after a special nuclear material is irradiated by the second particle beam emitted by the photoneutron conversion target (16);
wherein a first particle beam quasi-straight channel (162) is provided in the photoneutron conversion target (16), through which first particle beam quasi-straight channel (162) the first particle beam can be emitted.
2. The special nuclear material detection apparatus according to claim 1,
the first particle beam quasi-straight channel (162) has a gradually increasing cross section along a direction of transport of the first particle beam.
3. The special nuclear material detection apparatus according to claim 1,
the special nuclear material detection apparatus further includes a first particle beam shielding member (164), and the first particle beam shielding member (164) is movable between a first position where the first particle beam quasi-straight passage (162) is shielded and a second position where the first particle beam quasi-straight passage (162) is not shielded.
4. The special nuclear material detection apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the first particle beam shielding member (164) is provided on a side of the photoneutron conversion target (16) facing away from the heavy metal target (14).
5. The special nuclear material detection apparatus according to claim 1,
the special nuclear material detection device further comprises a second particle beam shielding component (166), and the second particle beam shielding component (166) can move between a third position for shielding the second particle beam and a fourth position for not shielding the second particle beam.
6. The special nuclear material detection apparatus according to claim 5,
when the second particle beam shielding member (166) is located at the third position, the second particle beam shielding member (166) is disposed outside the photoneutron conversion target (16) in a wrapping manner, and the first particle beam quasi-straight channel (162) is exposed.
7. The special nuclear material detection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
the particle detection unit (18) comprises an X-ray detector and an n-gamma detector.
8. The special nuclear material detection apparatus according to claim 7,
the X-ray detector comprises an L-type CsI crystal detector; and/or
The n-gamma detector comprises a plastic scintillator detector.
9. The special nuclear material detection device according to any one of claims 1-6, wherein the electron beam source (12) comprises a dual energy electron accelerator.
10. The special nuclear material detection apparatus according to claim 9,
the energy of the electron beam generated by the dual-energy electron accelerator is 6MeV and 9MeV respectively.
11. The special nuclear material detection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
the heavy metal target (14) comprises a tungsten target; and/or
The photoneutron conversion target (16) comprises a heavy water target or a beryllium target.
CN201911390361.0A 2019-12-27 2019-12-27 Special nuclear material detection device Pending CN110927809A (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN201911390361.0A CN110927809A (en) 2019-12-27 2019-12-27 Special nuclear material detection device

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN201911390361.0A CN110927809A (en) 2019-12-27 2019-12-27 Special nuclear material detection device

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CN110927809A true CN110927809A (en) 2020-03-27

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Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CN201911390361.0A Pending CN110927809A (en) 2019-12-27 2019-12-27 Special nuclear material detection device

Country Status (1)

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CN (1) CN110927809A (en)

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